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After the Miami Heat defeated the Philadelphia 76ers on February 27, Heat star and former Sixer Jimmy Butler shouted out anyone who he’s “been in the trenches with” while also throwing in that he hates former teammate P.J. Tucker, per Ky Carlin of SixersWire.
Tucker previously played for the Heat last season before opting out of his contract to then sign with the Sixers the following summer. On July 6, 2022, when Tucker thanked both the city of Miami and the Heat’s fanbase for the time he spent there in an Instagram post (which has since been deleted), Butler made a NSFW joke directed both at Tucker and at Joel Embiid.
“F*** you and Joel Embiid yeah I brought him into this,” Butler said.
It’s apparent that Butler jokingly likes to perpetuate that he holds a grudge against Tucker for ditching the Heat in favor of the Sixers, and he won’t hesitate to let his former teammate know that even if they only played for one season.
Butler’s Thoughts on Matchup and Embiid
Butler got straight to the point when talking about the matchup between the Sixers and Heat. While delving into the matchup, Butler stressed that the Heat need to find consistency.
“A battle of two good teams,” Butler said, per Carlin. “I did my job. We did our job. We gotta start stringing these things together though. We got them again in, I don’t know, 72 hours how many hours, 48 hours. We want to do the same thing.”
Even with their victory over the Sixers, the Heat are seven games behind them in the Eastern Conference standings with only 20 games left to possibly catch up, which will be a tall task for them.
Butler then delved into the crunchtime block his teammate Bam Adebayo had on Embiid, praising both his current and former teammate in the process.
“Joel is a tough cover for anybody,” Butler said. “So to block his shot, to attack him on the offensive end, you gotta give to him. MVP type player. He’s been doing that for a very long time and to get some stops on that dude in crunch time, it’s big time.”
Doc Rivers on Butler’s Clutch Layup
During crunchtime, Butler managed to convert an acrobatic reverse layup in traffic that helped the Heat take the lead with a little less than a minute and a half to go.
After the game, Rivers praised Butler for hitting the shot while also praising the Sixers’ defense for forcing him to attempt a layup like that which miraculously went in.
“Just being Jimmy,” Rivers said, per Carlin. “He does everything. We would’ve taken that shot. That was an unbelievable shot he made. Overall, it was defended well. I thought we defended him pretty well overall, but he still made plays. I thought our zone was really effective, but Jimmy kept getting to the middle.”
The Sixers will take on the Heat again on March 1 as part of an upcoming five-game road trip that faces them off against the Dallas Mavericks, Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers, and Minnesota Timberwolves.
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